tents at what might or might not be a music festival

The Urgent Need for a Sustainable Music Industry – and the Innovations that Make it Possible

Every month this year has been the hottest in recorded history. Our weather is getting increasingly unpredictable, leading to more storms and floods in some areas and extreme droughts and forest fires in others.

The importance of selling music, or solving problems in the music business, pales in comparison with these issues.

However, these are not separate. We are the environment and our actions affect it. You can bet that last century’s vast record distribution networks made an important contribution to our CO2 output.

Can you guess how much of the CO2 footprint of a CD purchase comes from the ride between the consumer’s home and retail outlet?

10%?

Bit more.

Try something like 20-30%.

Well..

Still wrong.

It’s 50%.

CO2 cost of music sales
Comparison of six album purchase scenarios in GHG emissions (g CO2/album). Error bars represent 90% credible intervals from Monte Carlo analysis. (Source: Microsoft, Intel)

The good news is that consuming music digitally reduces the CO2 footprint of that music by 40-80%. So, sure, the decline of the CD brought a decrease in revenues for the overall music industry, but at least we get a less tangible benefit in return. And the industry appears to be recovering.

In economics, there is a concept called negative externalities which is defined as “economic activity that imposes a negative effect on an unrelated third party.” Take the CD trade as an example. It imposed a large negative effect on consumers, since the taxes levied around transportation do not raise enough money to reverse the effects of the associated CO2 output.

There are many remaining negative externalities in the music business, but technological innovation can help alleviate problems. It’s in our economic interest to care about these negative externalities. If we can prevent scenarios with cataclysmic weather events, consumers might be a little more relaxed to go see a gig, buy some merch, and spend money on music instead of sand bags to protect their house against a flood. I’m not exaggerating: floods in US coastal cities have more than doubled since the 1980s.

Transportation

As highlighted before, transportation is one of the biggest contributors to CO2 output. What can we do besides driving hybrids or environment-‘friendly’ trucks?

The commute to the studio

Democratized means of production, such as production software and more affordable high quality digital equipment, have reduced the need for regular commutes to the studio. Studios may still be a necessity due to acoustics, sound isolation and for recording purposes, but you don’t need them every step of the way.

Bedroom producers are polar bears’ best friends.

Hawaiian polar bear

The commute to the office

What goes for musicians, definitely goes for most people with office jobs in the music business. If you want to be a sustainable company in this day and age, encourage everyone who’s able to, to work from (close to) home at least 1-2 days a week.

VR and concerts

Perhaps the biggest contributors to the industry’s carbon emissions are live touring and festivals. They require equipment to be shipped, band members to be flown, and fans to be congregated. In the UK, audience travel is estimated to account for 43% of the industry’s gas emissions. The rise of electronic dance music and hiphop have helped to reduce the amount of equipment, and band members, being flown around. Virtual reality could be a next step.

While VR won’t replace the concert experience, it will offer a new competing experience. Being able to host virtual performances for fans worldwide, at a much lower cost, won’t just help reduce emissions, but can also alleviate some of the stress that a lifestyle of always being on tour entails. There has been much attention for mental health in music recently: perhaps VR can help?

VR, band practice and collaboration

Another reason why people come together a lot is for practice and collaboration. What if you could work together in a virtual environment, from the comfort of your homes? What if that virtual environment replicated a normal practice studio perfectly? What if that virtual environment could provide an experience richer, especially in terms of features, than a real world place?

Merch, 3D Printing, and distributed manufacturing

Another big cost to the industry, consumer, and environment: shipping merchandise. And let’s think beyond just the t-shirts. Some artists ship in large quantities, but most don’t have the scale to mass-produce. They produce small batches, and then ship them around the world from where they live. It would arrive at your home or a local pick-up point. What if instead, you order something, it’s produced at the nearest 3D printer and you can pick it up from there. Not only are there less emissions involved, but it might be faster too. There are still questions about whether the amount of energy required offsets the carbon emissions, particularly for mass production, but some printers are performing great.

Services like 3D Hubs are already providing over 1 billion people with access to 3D printers within 10 miles from their home.

Developments in commercial flight

Even if we don’t do anything, technology is being developed to make flight a lot cleaner. Biofuels may reduce carbon emissions by 36-85%. Longer term, lithium-ion batteries may allow for solar-powered flight. We’re not quite there yet, but as can be seen in the video below, Elon Musk is optimistic that it’s doable.

Hardware

Now let’s tackle the impact of producing some of the equipment necessary for making music. Some instruments get resold, recycled, or re-used. A lot of hardware doesn’t, though. According to a UN study, only 15.5% of ‘e-waste’ gets recycled.

Furthermore, there is a lot of unused value sitting inside communities.

Self-driving vehicles promise to reduce the amount of cars we need to manufacture. Why? Because our cars are standing still 95% of the time. If cars are automated and shared, one car could service many more people on a day than it would normally do in a month.

Likewise, a lot of instruments and equipment go unused for vast amounts of time. What if there was a way to share this value with other musicians in your community? Think Airbnb for music equipment, which includes insurance. A startup called Demooz lets you borrow things to try before you buy. A startup with a broader use case, Peerby, lets you lend to and borrow from your neighbours. For free, or you can charge a fee.

So, maybe you don’t have to go to the studio to use a good microphone and there is also no necessity for everyone to own all of the equipment they might need either.

Why spend money when you can be like Kramer?

Festivals & events

A lot of festivals are powered by diesel generators, costing around half a billion euros each year, just in Europe. As much as three quarters of the UK music industry’s greenhouse gas emissions come from live performances.

Tents get left behind, a lot of water is used to clean, and cars queue up for hours to get into parking lots.

One of the most interesting music-related startup accelerators has to be Open-House. They look at how events can be made more efficient, but also how festivals can be used as a case study for how we organise humanitarian aid, or solving other societal issues.

Their startups include Kartent, a recyclable cardboard tent, Sanitrax, which makes the toilet experience more efficient, and Watt-Now, an energy monitoring system for festivals.

Each year, Amsterdam Dance Event organises a full day of presentations, panels and discussions about sustainability in events and dance music, called ADE Green. Other conferences should take note.

Conferences

Music industry events used to be the only way to handle business for a lot of people. Now, with fast communication, video calls, etc. that aspect has lost its importance. Even for networking, Slack channels like the Music Tech Network or good old Twitter might be a n easier way to get in touch with relevant people, and especially more CO2 efficient. Sure, online networking doesn’t build the same trust relation as meeting face to face does, but collaboration does – and with such vast arsenals of tools at our disposal for online collaboration, there has never been a better chance to involve people from around the world in your projects.

And if you’re going to organise a conference that flies in a lot of people – at least dedicate some time to sustainability.

Using music to inspire

Music is powerful. When people come to a festival, for many, it will be an experience they’ll never forget.

Music is part of everyone’s life. From Fortune 500 CEO to high school student, from plumber to engineer.

This gives us a unique position. We get to dictate the standard. We get to influence what is ‘cool’, and what should be considered normal.

Consider a large-scale, ‘green’ festival, such as the UK’s Shambala. Implementing these solutions has a ripple effect.

Music has the power to inspire movements and new societal norms. It can ignite revolutions.

Let’s use music’s power to inspire people to build a greener world.

Extra resources

If you want to make the music business more sustainable, here are some amazing sets of resources to help you on your way.

  • Julie’s Bicycle: a global charity dedicated to making the creative industries sustainable. They have a vast set of resources ranging from guides, to fact sheets, and webinars.
  • Ouishare: a collaborative economy initiative that does research, connects people together, and shares advice and insight into how sharing can make us more resource efficient.

5 Big Ideas for the UK Association of Independent Music

The Association of Independent Music (AIM) recently put out a call for ‘big ideas’ to be discussed at their Annual General Meeting.

“The goal is to produce and publish by the end of this year a manifesto which sets out 10 big ideas to help the indie sector to thrive in the coming years.”

I’m not a member, but not shy to give a bit of unsolicited advice.

Here are my 5 big ideas:

Streaming exclusives

The indie sector needs to widely speak out against streaming exclusives. After years of hard work, we’re now sending music fans back to pirate services. Let’s keep working on sustainability, instead of sacrificing it for short-term gains.

  • Streaming exclusives may be making the music piracy problem even worse >>>
  • Why streaming exclusives are bad for the music business >>>
  • Spotify: Streaming exclusives are bad for artists and fans >>>
  • Why exclusives are terrible for fans, artists, and the streaming music business >>>

Startup license

Establish a framework which allows startups to quickly and flexibly license music from indie labels for a set duration. The prospect of spending years in licensing negotiations stops entrepreneurs and investors from supporting innovation the independent music sector desperately needs. Let’s remove the necessity to negotiate for the most common use cases.

  • The case for a startup license: why startup founders choose to ignore music copyright law >>>

Focus on dance

The Netherlands is stealing the UK’s spotlight as the centre of global dance music with events like Amsterdam Dance Event, major DJs, and a huge global dance event business. The UK has a rich history of dance music and is home to some of the best artist, clubs, and labels in the world. It needs an action plan to assert itself. With Sadiq Khan as London’s Mayor, there has never been a better time.

  • London Mayor Sadiq Khan is looking for the UK’s first night czar >>>

Refugees

Develop an initiative to help artists and aspiring musicians among the refugees arriving to the UK. They bring a unique cultural and musical perspective, which could blend into the UK’s rich multi-cultural musical tradition. They need material assistance in the form of access to equipment and instruments, as well as contacts in local radio stations, venues, etc. Besides the musical benefit, there is also the advantage of contributing to better assimilation of new arrivals.

New anti-piracy research

A research initiative looking into the return on investment of money spent on countering digital piracy. With countless anti-piracy companies popping up, it should help indie artists and labels determine whether their money’s best spent growing their fanbase and making more music. It’s important to know what anti-piracy methods pay off, and what’s just a way to use the threat of piracy to get musicians to pay up.

Foster my ideas

Since I’m not a member of AIM, I cannot officially submit these ideas. If you’re an AIM member and interested in fostering the streaming exclusives, dance music, or refugees idea, get in touch: bas@musicxtechxfuture.com

Interview: Wil Benton (Chew.tv) about building a livestreaming platform for DJs

Can Chew be to music what Twitch is to gaming? Find out what it takes to build the world’s largest video platform for DJs.

Chew team

Wil Benton is one of the founders of Chew, a service that lets performers create a livestream of their DJ or studio sessions. They were launched in January 2015 and signed up tens of thousands of creators, broadcasting over fifty thousand performances.

Not only does Chew provide a platform where you can interact with DJs while they’re playing — it also functions as a massive archive of DJ sets, easily rivaling those of Boiler Room, and providing a more visual alternative to Mixcloud.

This is the first edition of a series of interviews with music startup founders and professionals. With the series, I want to shine a light on what goes on in music startups, how they work and what their challenges are. So, first up: Wil about building Chew.

Chew.tv logo

How has the journey been since graduating from the Ignite startup accelerator?

It may sound cliched, but we really wouldn’t be here today without the support and guidance we had on the Ignite accelerator. The team were the first to believe in Ben Bowler and I as founders, investing in us as a team (our idea pre-programme wasn’t quite as strong as it is today!) and giving us the focus and headspace to start building what became Chew at the start of last year. 

Our continuing success is testament to the Ignite team and all that they do — so can’t really say more than that!

Some people argue that investors are wary of investing in music startups due to uncertainties with rights and monetization. Have you encountered this?

In a word, no. Not yet anyway!

I think, had we not been demonstrating ‘interesting’ metrics and engagement on both sides of our creator & consumer marketplace, we would’ve found it harder to raise the two rounds of seed funding we’ve raised to date — but, on the whole, raising investment’s been a pleasure so far!

We’re gearing up to our first institutional round towards the end of this year; and conversations there have been promising too; again possibly thanks to the numbers we’ve got. That and the large amount of time we spend talking to our investors (both currently and looking to invest).

Chew presentation

You ran a crowdfunding campaign letting users invest & get equity. What made you choose this?

We looked at crowdfunding as a way to fill part of the seed round we did at the start of this year. We’re building a community-based business, so it made sense to look at crowdfunding as a way of allowing our EU-based users to invest.

What better way to demonstrate we’re building something of value than our users actually investing in what we’re building?

We ended up having 122 individuals investing in the campaign; many Chew users but also supporters who saw value in what we’re doing. Seedrs, the platform we used, operate a nominee structure where their legal entity represents all 122 investors’ interest — but we have a great relationship with both parties and keep them in the loop with news on the business every fortnight.

Crowdfunding as a route to accessing capital isn’t the easiest thing to do — but as a way of generating interest in our community, product, and offering, it was unparalleled.

How did the idea of Chew come about?

Ben and I met the summer before we launched Chew — introduced by a mutual friend because we shared a love for music and tech. The predecessor to Chew was called EatBass (sticking with the culinary theme here!) and we spent a few months on that before I left my job at an advertising agency at the end of 2013.

Ben had spent a lot of time working with live streaming at his job with AEI and was being asked back to stream club nights and other events after having left. That’s originally where the idea for a live streaming platform for music came about. I started working full-time on Chew in that guise at the start of 2014, in a marketing and biz dev role. Meanwhile Ben covered the tech side by working evenings and weekends until joining me full time in August 2014.

Wil Ben Chew

It wasn’t until our time on the Ignite accelerator in October that we focused the idea being a platform and community for DJs and the electronic music community, though.

How did you assemble your team?

We raised an SEIS investment round in April 2015 after we’d finished Ignite, which gave us the capital to hire our CTO, Sam. We spent ages trying to hire for the full-stack role we wanted to fill; and Sam ended up finding our listing on the AngelList profile. He joined us the week after graduating with a Computer Science degree.

We’re still a team of three today; Sam as CTO, Ben as CSO/CVO and me as CEO. This year, we’ve been lucky enough to welcome a few ‘grownups’, who bring extensive industry experience to the team on a consultancy basis as we continue building out the business.

What are you happiest about regarding Chew? What pains you?

Our continuing success — and hearing about the value we’re adding to our users’ lives and careers on a daily basis!

Pain points are, thankfully, few and far between at the moment. Finances, given we’re working on a limited runway, and resource, being a team of three, have their downsides — but I wouldn’t have us operating in any other way!

Chew office setup

What are you happiest about regarding Chew’s current feature set? And what bugs you?

We’ve achieved a huge amount in our short history — especially given we’ve only one (truly awesome) developer!

Our ability to plan, build and execute features to a reliable schedule — on top of bug fixes, community support etc — never ceases to amaze me.

In terms of personal bugs, it’s more of a resource issue than a problem with our features. We’ve got so much more to do, but our team is at capacity — so we need to expand to be able to improve what we have. So not necessarily a bug of mine; just conscious awareness that there’s only so much we can do as the lean team we are today!

You have over 25,000 DJs and producers on the service… How did they find out about Chew?

We had just under 30k users sign up in our first 18 months. We spent four or so months last year testing low level spend on Facebook ads (less than ÂŁ5k) and, having just looked at the data, our numbers (in terms of engagement and platform usage) are actually better if we ignore the data from the duration of the Facebook spend.

Otherwise, our growth has been purely word of mouth. We turned Facebook ads off in August last year and haven’t looked back! We’re pretty active on the socials and in terms of community support, and we find that keeps our DJs and creators happy.

The happier [the DJs] are, the more content they produce on Chew and the larger the audiences they bring.

We’ve also just acquired our largest competitor, Mixify. The users we’re transitioning onto Chew is more than ten times our registered user number — so seeing how that impacts our numbers will be a fun journey!

How do you think DJs can benefit from live broadcasting?

Live streaming is an open, democratic process that allows anyone, anywhere in the world to share what they’re doing in realtime. It’s the realtime aspect that connects us as consumers, the ‘spontaneous togetherness’ we get from sharing this experience. Josh Elman, one of the VCs who invested in Meerkat, wrote a great blogpost about this.

For DJs, music producers, and personalities, it levels the playing field and enables anyone at any stage of their career to build an audience, drive that engagement that defines success as a musician and ultimately monetise their activities. That’s what we’re seeing with Chew — bedroom DJs building a global fanbase, established artists communicating with an engaged audience from their bedrooms or studios and record labels sharing new content from their artist rosters.

You mentioned spontaneous togetherness. How have you tried to foster that?

We are as hands off, from a platform point of view, as our creators want us to be.

Everything that happens on Chew is user-driven; our contribution to that is making sure the tech and platform makes things as easy as possible for our creators and consumers to engage with each other.

Do you think live streamed shows should be an essential part of any performing DJs digital strategy?

Yes — but potentially more than just shows. We see the best consumer engagement when our creators break away from the ‘let’s stream a show’ mentality.

It’s more about creating a consistent flow of content than sticking a webcam behind you in the club.

Live video is probably the most powerful thing, second to only live events, in a DJ, producer, or personality’s digital strategy for a number of reasons. Frequency and consistency are key, though. Without them, we don’t see as good an engagement from the audience side.

Wil Benton of Chew.tv DJing

You mention frequency and consistency being key. Does that in any way contrast with ‘spontaneous togetherness’?

Great point — I hadn’t thought of it like that! Being consistently spontaneous kind of defeats the point doesn’t it 😉

I think, like I said earlier, allowing every creation and consumption decision to be user-driven helps drive this togetherness — but it’s the regularity of spontaneity that drives the behavioural change from a consumption side of things, which allows creators to maximise their audience’s engagement.

Are you going to be launching Twitch-style monetization options like donations and subscriptions?

We’re working on a number of new features — watch this space!

Do you have any words of advice for people with a genius music startup idea and other founders?

I’ll let Betaworks/ Startup Vitamins answer this for me.

One of the things we learned on Ignite:

You can never have a product in users’ hands too quickly.

Build, launch and iterate as fast as you can.

Follow Wil & Chew on their journey:

 

Our changing relationship with music and its new practical function

back in my day music players

Music executives need to understand how shifting context and function have changed music consumers and their expectations.

Guest contribution by Thiago R. Pinto.
Portuguese version.

Part I

So, the music industry has changed. If you haven’t been living in a cave for the past 15 years you probably noticed. For those who need to catch up, here are the 3 main points that summarize it:

  • increased access to the means of production;
  • increased access to information;
  • democratization of distribution channels.

But some things remain unchanged by this digital revolution. Royalties distribution, for example. The correct distribution of copyright royalties is still a headache for composers, musicians and labels. Despite music having been practically dematerialised and living on networks where everything is trackable. Companies like Kobalt are trying to change this game, but we still have a long way to go until we get this right. This is an issue that deserves its own article, so I’ll leave it for now.

Among the lasting habits that have been practically untouched along these 15 years, my personal highlight goes to a mantra I hear in every conference, article and talk about music. It goes something like this: people’s emotional/behavioural relationship with music hasn’t changed. We still love music the way we always did.

Part II

A couple of weeks ago I was reading a report published by Vevo where in its introduction Erick Huggers, Vevo’s CEO, once again repeats the mantra:

vevo report

Well, I don’t know where Huggers and others are looking, but I can’t believe that they still don’t see something that it’s in everyone’s face. This relationship has changed! C-H-A-N-G-E-D. I would write it upside down if I could.

Before we move on with the subject, I just want to make one thing clear: yes, music still moves crowds of people. Yes, it is more listened than ever. And yes, artists still have a lot of influence. However that doesn’t mean people still relate to music the same way they used to.

Probably there is no other cultural activity that is so universal, that permeates, affects and shapes human behaviour as much as music, said Alan P. Merriam in The Anthropology of Music. However, music’s own definition evokes a variety of philosophical, cultural and even political questions. Musicologists suggest that its definition is directly related to the social context and function of certain behaviours in a particular culture. In my opinion, these two words — context and function — define a fundamental element, so many times forgotten, of the discussion: the formation of our musical preferences.

The changes in the way we build our tastes and preferences are the things that should be analyzed, so that we can understand why today music has a new function and also why we can no longer blindly support ourselves on arguments like the one above by Huggers, especially if it is presented in an music industry context. To understand context, function and how today these issues have altered people’s relationship with music, we must go back in time.

Part III

Music always had context and function. In the early days, when we were still just tribes, music used to have spiritual functions. Variety didn’t exist, neither was music entertainment. One’s tribe music was all that there was to listen to and it was directly related to celebration of the tribe’s beliefs. In other words, music was attached to religion. In this context, forget about music preference. People will listen to what the Chief says.

We evolved into more complex societies where we began to be divided into social classes. There were the nobles, the bourgeois, and the clergy. Then came everyone else. At this time the culture each one of these groups had access to, was a fundamental tool for social distinction. For the rich there were good instruments, good musicians, and concert halls. There was classical music. For the rest there were rudimentary instruments, self-taught musicians and taverns. There was folk music. In that context, musical preference was a status symbol and it showed to which social class one belonged.

2 hippies at a festival
Music had a fundamental roll in the formation of the hippie culture, being a tool for the creation of a collective identity.

During the 20th century the development of consumer societies gave new meaning to all goods produced. Especially after World War II, we started living in a society where for the first time supply was greater than demand. At this point there were a great number of companies offering very similar products and services. The technical differentiation between these goods gave space to brand personality construction and so we began consuming products not only for their quality but also because we identify with them. We started to use consumption as a way to build individual and collective identities.

In this process, cultural goods — specially music — were extremely important. Musical preference was a key element in defining ones personality, particularly among the youth. It was what defined which group a person belonged to, which ideology he or she followed, and in what values he or she believed in, independent of what was his or hers social-economical background. In that context, music preference was about identity.

Part IV

We arrived at the beginning of the 21st century and all these functions — spiritual, social and identity building — still exist. The difference is that now they’ve lost strength and no longer are the pillars that define our musical preference. The 3 key elements of the digital revolution (access to the means of production, access to information and democratization of distribution channels) created a new context to music consumption having a direct impact in the way new generations are building their musical preferences.

Never before in history have we had access to so much music, for such a low cost and at such a high speed. The access difficulty, which in my opinion was a key element in keeping our preferences so narrow, was eliminated from the equation. At 15 (in 1998) I had a proud collection of roughly 100 CDs as a result of the musical choices I made. Today a teenager with the same age has access to humanity’s music library only a few clicks away.

Part V

The platforms in which we consume music have also changed. The introduction of the iPod started transforming music consumption into a private experience which allowed people to try out new music genres without worrying about their social image.

Listening to music on the metro
Music consumption habits were strongly impacted by the introduction of digital portable devices and headphones.

Through the ease of access and popularization of new platforms, music started being ubiquitous. The frontiers to experimentation were then opened and brought new tastes and the permission for listeners to break up the social identity chains of each genre allowing the free flow between a variety of different styles of music. It was the beginning of the process that freed music from its function as an identity building tool. At this point a new function for music emerges: the practical function.

Part VI

Music started to be used according to the activities and tasks that listeners were performing during their daily routines. Like this, music preference that before was an almost immutable passion built through context, today looks like a chameleon changing from moment to moment.

We are living the age of “I love this music, but at the right moment”, we see the creation of a generation of eclectics that use music in very practical ways, a generation where the mood related to an activity is more important than genre. Need to study? Downtempo or classical. Going to the gym? EDM or hip-hop. Time for cooking? Indie folk or jazz. Going to a party? Techno or trap. In other words, the experience is not in the music itself, but in what we do while while listening to it. In this context it is interesting to realize how we can look at today’s music services with new eyes. Last.fm is a great example.

Last.fm was one of the first social networks to use music to establish connections between users based on their music preferences. It identifies all tracks and the related artists played by its users and utilizes this data to build a personal music history. The initial goal was that from this list of most played artists the user’s musical preferences would arouse. If a person listens to Beethoven, Mozart and Bach a lot then classical music must be his or her preference.

But following the aforementioned argument, that music today has a practical function in people’s life, we can not accept this conclusion so fast. Classical music today is consumed a lot by people while they work and, in this case, we have to also consider that classical may not be their preference, but just the genre that follows her main daily activity: work. If the tasks we perform during the day are what are going to define what we will listen, and not our musical preference for a specific genre, than we can say that today, Last.fm does not present the musical preferences of its users, but a list of the activities they engage the most in.

While in Last.fm’s case we can consider that this data is generated “accidentally” as a service sub product, to Spotify the perception of the new practical function of music was fundamental to the development of its UX.

Spotify was one of the first major services to understand that to this new generation of listeners, the stars of streaming services are not songs and artists, but playlists and moods. Spotify’s user experience is built around these two elements, because the company understood that its users do not solely use the service for contemplation, but use music as a fuel for another activity. It was the first time I saw a service put together moods and genres side by side, presenting a perfect mirror for this profound change in music consumption behaviour.

By focusing on moods and playlists, Spotify helps its users to quickly find a perfect selection of music to whatever activity he or she is engaging in, without having the headache of searching through 30 million songs to find the perfect ones for the moment.

Spotify workout playlists

Spotify mood playlists
Spotify and its long list of mood and activity playlists.

Part VII

Now that we‘ve gone through the new practical function of music, how it changed the formation of our musical preferences, how it changed our relationship with music and finally how we can have a new look on services and business strategies, I want to go back to the focal point to this article which is the mantra “we still love music the same way we always did”. I’ll once again quote Vevo’s CEO Erick Huggers to present my counterpoints:

“Music creates transformative experiences. It has the power to connect people in personal and meaningful ways unlike any other medium.”

No, it is not music that creates the experience. Music is the background that helps to set the mood. The activity which people are engaging in is what connects people (with themselves or others). It is the Saturday lunch with friends, the picnic at the park, the music festival with 40.000 people in the middle of the desert.

“For music fans, it’s an essential part of how they live their day-to-day lives.”

I believe this statement is true only if we understand that music is an essential part of this new generation of listeners, because it gives the key to the activities they will engage in and not because — like in the past — it was used to build their personal and collective identities.

“Finding the songs and melodies that speak to them directly and reflect their unique personas isn’t so much a desire, but a need.”

Global Spotify Listener Loyalty by Genre
A Spotify chart presenting the most loyal fans by music genre. Knowing a little bit about metal it‘s obvious that its fans are the most loyal ones. What’s important to notice is how all the other genres are pretty even, showing that people are not attached to them.

Here is the big issue. Music for new generations is not about reflecting their unique personas, but a mirror of the activity he or she is performing. Music was once a question of loyalty and identity. Today it’s a good consumed according to moments. So the musical preferences of these listeners is much more flexible and no longer the reflection of their identities.

Part VIII

Whether this new perspective is something bad or good for music is not up to me (or especially to this article) to say. What is important here is that this revolution cannot be stopped. It is a continuous process of gradual transformation where the individual is in charge. It is a self regulating revolution where it is not up to industries and businesses to control it, but to really understand its culture, values, rules and players. We should not perceive this new listener from a conservative viewpoint or as an enemy to the music establishment. We should analyze it from an evolutionary standpoint where the listener is the transformation agent in a radical change in the social consumption relations.

Futurism is a science that usually gets its predictions wrong because it is done in large by people who look at technology and numbers (and because it is just damn hard to see what’s coming). Technology can change people’s behaviour, but only if it is the right time for it, in the right context. Numbers can sometimes be misleading. If you only look at the big numbers you might miss the small ones which are the real indicators of transformation. The real challenge in futurism is to predict how our behaviour is going to change. Borrowing from Tom Vanderbilt’s excellent article:

“When technology changes people, it is often not in the ways one might expect.”

Technology changed the way we listen to music and as a result we changed the way we feel about it. We should start considering that people are no longer loving music, but that they just like it. Or are even just using it. But what is more important is that only when we understand these changes, will the music industry be able to create services, products and business models that are in tune with this new listener.


This is a guest contribution by Thiago R. Pinto. 

The hyped rise of Yellow Claw: a case-study

What started out as an Amsterdam club night in 2010, quickly became a global dance music phenomenon.

A look at the strategy behind Yellow Claw’s rise to fame.

rise_of_yellow_claw

Act 1: The Netherlands

Yellow Claw started out as a weekly Thursday night party in a hip Amsterdam club called Jimmy Woo. They played a sound which is sometimes referred to as urban eclectic in The Netherlands, mixing up dance music, hiphop, R&B and Caribbean music like dancehall or bubbling. Early on, they had ideas for tracks they wanted to play, but they simply didn’t exist. So they worked with an upcoming producer, Boaz van de Beatz, who has also produced for Major Lazer, to create more of the sound they’re looking for.

In 2012, these songs, in part because of their network, became big hits in The Netherlands and Belgium. The trio started putting out mixtapes featuring known and unreleased tracks. The mixtapes contained humorous intros and shoutouts that played into current events. They understood the Dutch sentiment well and played into it. Their 2013 ode to the Dutch gabber subculture is a testament to that.

They figured out how to play the hype cycle. Creating anticipation for their mixtapes with video trailers, which created anticipation for new releases, which created anticipation for live shows… It’s a closed hype loop. This is the other ingredient to their success: their songs became hits, because they knew how to build anticipation, so people would buy their music on day 1, making it hit the charts. Immediate traffic also helps a lot with the recommendation algorithms of content on YouTube and Facebook.

yellow claw hype cycle social media

By that time, everyone in The Netherlands knew who they were. They started getting attention from abroad and released an EP on the label of Major Lazer’s Diplo, Mad Decent. Around this time, they switched their mixtapes to English intros and shoutouts and later that year they had a massive global hit: Shotgun.

As someone who had been keeping an eye on them, for the love of moombahton and trap, that was phenomenal. For a few months in late 2013 and early 2014, I would hear Shotgun on the radio nearly every time I took a taxi. In Moscow.

Act 2: International

At this time they basically went on a non-stop tour. They worked with Amsterdam/Berlin fashion-label Daily Paper to establish their first merch line. The idea was not to just have band shirts to show you’re a fan. They wanted to design clothes that actually look good and make sense for the emerging subculture. They didn’t just make clothes for their fans: they made clothes they like themselves and would often be seen on Instagram and their music videos rocking their apparel.

Blood for Mercy apparel daily paper

Seeing them live in 2012 and in 2016 are drastically different experiences. Their fans are hardcore and love their apparel. You’ll find yourself in an ocean (read: mosh pit) of Yellow Claw merch.

They really found their voice on social media, too. Retweeting fans praise, running a stellar Instagram account, and a Snapchat which gives more of a behind-the-scenes look. All of these feed into their hype cycles and are great instruments to remain top of mind and to drive fans’ actions.

In a panel at Amsterdam Dance Event they proclaimed that they exclusively play their own music live. They use live shows to determine what tracks work and don’t work, and only release the ones that get the type of response they desire.

Act 3: Barong Family

Then they founded their own label. The thing I admire about Yellow Claw is that they’ve always done things on their own terms. They had always been indie, putting all of their music on Soundcloud for free, but this was the next step.

Over the years, they had worked with many talented producers and DJs to create their music, like Cesqeaux, Wiwek, LNY TNZ and Mightyfools. Now it was time to help them achieve the same levels of success. They created an additional apparel line with the Barong Family branding and their live sets and mixtapes are no longer exclusively Yellow Claw. They put the people they work with in the spotlight.

This is so in keeping with hiphop or dance music subcultures, but disappointingly rare when it comes to bigger artists with high mainstream appeal.

They’ve been throwing Barong Family nights in multiple countries and are now embarking on a world tour with their crew.

Strategic take-aways

Here are some of the most important lessons from Yellow Claw’s success:

  • Take care of aesthetics, everywhere. Present a consistent image.
  • Don’t do everything yourself. Work with the best. Their musical collaborations and fashion label are a testament to that.
  • Prioritize building an audience. This will help you figure out what new music your fans will like or not.
  • Use social media to keep the buzz going and to always be top of mind for your fans.
  • Don’t be afraid to experiment with sounds. If you have your own audience who loves it, you don’t have to compromise.
  • Figure out business models that let you leverage hype: eg. give music away for free, but earn money from live shows and apparel.

Use Facebook Messenger to Access Spotify Discover Weekly and Release Radar – in 4 Steps

A bot for Facebook Messenger lets you access your Spotify Release Radar and Discover Weekly playlists from inside Messenger. Since it currently lacks an interface, here are the steps to follow to get new music recommendations delivered to Messenger.

Discover Messenger

1. Add the bot

You can add the bot by clicking this link.

2. Sign in

Tell it you want to sign in, by typing sign in. Then login to Spotify & give the bot the necessary permissions.

3. Play something

You can now choose to play tracks on Spotify or get 30 second previews.

4. Extra commands

Got lost and want to bring back the playlist? Type current week. You’ll also be able to tell it playlist 1 week ago to get last week’s playlist, but first you’ll need to be using the bot for a while.


At the time of writing, there are still some bugs to iron out. If you run into any difficulties, you can contact the bot’s maker, Daniel Noshkin, on Twitter or on Product Hunt.

If you ever want to revoke the app’s access, you can find all apps that have access to your Spotify account in your settings.